With every new movie he makes, it is becoming increasingly clear that
Paul Walker has little to no charisma and on-screen presence. Producers
keep playing up his good looks to tempt younger women into the theaters,
ignoring the fact that it takes some presence to supplement good looks
(still, he needs a haircut and a good shave). If there's nothing upstairs,
even the dumbest people in the audience will eventually notice (uh, whatever
happened to Freddie Prinze, Jr.?). It's pretty amusing that Walker (2
Fast 2 Furious, Joyride) plays
Chris Johnston, the only non-archeologist in Timeline, the latest
Michael Crichton adaptation. The other characters tower above him in intellect.
Ah, how fitting. In his two high-profile outings in The
Fast and the Furious series, co-stars Vin Diesel and Tyrese overshadowed
him. It happens again here, this time by co-star Gerard Butler. Butler
(Tomb Raider: The Cradle of Life, Reign
of Fire) has more presence on screen, better lines, and a better
love story than poor Walker, who has to wander around looking like he's
lost.

His very presence makes Timeline go from mindless escapist pleasure
to dumb escapist pleasure. Johnston, Andre Marek (Butler), Kate Erickson
(Frances O'Connor, Windtalkers,
The Importance of Being
Earnest) and Marine John Gordon (Neal McDonough, Minority
Report, You're Killing Me...) enter a time machine so they
can go back to fourteenth century France to rescue Johnston's father,
Edward (Billy Connolly, White Oleander,
Who Is Cletis Tout?). Edward
became suspicious when his funder, Robert Doniger (David Thewlis, Besieged,
Goodbye Charlie Bright) kept feeding him prime archeological information
on his dig at Castlegard, France. It turns out that Doniger built a time
machine that opened a wormhole into the past, directly to Castlegard.
Edward insisted on going into the past, and is now trapped. Sounds easy,
but the problem is that they emerge in the past just as a huge battle
between the French and the English in the Hundred Year's War is about
to begin.

Timeline has the same quick pacing and just enough scientific
mumbo-jumbo that makes most Crichton books guilty pleasures. The main
problem has been translating those books into films (memorable failures
include Congo and Rising Sun). Director Richard Donner (Lethal
Weapon 4, Conspiracy Theory) and adapters Jeff Maguire (In
the Line of Fire, Toby) and George Nolfi do not care a whit
about the science, they just want the same kind of thrills that other
films with knights and castles can generate, but its just not there. The
catapults are cool, but the fight scenes, and a huge siege sequence never
feel that exciting. Instead, Donner has the characters, most of whom should
probably be pretty smart, doing some pretty stupid things.

One wants to smack O'Connor and especially Butler for some of their actions
(and Walker for just being there). They know that they are there to rescue
Edward, and that anything they do may have potentially serious ramifications
in the future, yet they still do stupid things. Paradoxically, Marek's
actions and the consequences of them are what make Butler so much more
interesting than Walker. The human element of the story is also missing;
there is no real connection between any of the characters, especially
Edward and Chris. At the beginning, Donner establishes that Chris isn't
really interested in archaeology, and as a result, is not too close to
his father. He jumps at the chance to rescue his father out of a sense
of loss, he feels he wasted time in the past, now he must make up for
it. It all feels contrived and fake, only for the purpose of moving the
plot along. Well, just as Chris isn't interested in archaeology, Timeline
doesn't seem interested enough in itself.